(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . What Voters told us at the doors on Saturday about Joe Biden being Too Old to Run [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-07-01 Hope Springs from Field PAC [website] volunteers have been listening to voters, knocking on their doors and soliciting their opinions about the upcoming campaign since March 2nd. Every once in awhile, voters would tell us ‘Joe Biden is too old’ or something along those lines. It wasn’t rare but it wasn’t common. Because it was relatively infrequent, we haven’t been recording that data. But Thursday was a shock to the system — an extreme shock to the system — and people were asking if this wasn’t something we should track. The response has definitely been Flashing Red Warning Signs. That’s what we see in the data, and that’s what we heard at the doors. If anyone is listening. Hope Springs volunteers started knocking on doors in March in Arizona and Florida, and we’ve added 10 other states as they warmed up. Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin were added to Arizona and Florida, starting with Georgia, North Carolina and Texas on March 9th. In Arizona, Florida, Montana and Nevada, Hope Springs volunteers circulated petitions to get the Abortion Amendments to their state constitutions on the ballot for this November. And, we did it! Volunteers collected, and Hope Springs organizers verified, 177,568 signatures in those four states. The first sign after the debate was when volunteers started to back out of knocking on doors for the weekend. The struggle was real. One volunteer messaged me this finale to a spirited discussion: “You are right, Biden is better, but it doesn't mean squat when people see him feeble, optics matter more than facts. I’m not willing to confront that.” In the prior weekend (June 22nd), 23 volunteers who had signed up to canvass failed to show up. But 5,305 other volunteers did. Pretty typical of our experience each and every weekend. On Saturday, June 29th, 645 volunteers who signed up failed to show. Some of them warned us in advance. We did have 1,968 volunteers turn up. Start of July 4th Holiday Week, 2023 & 2024 And it is as bad as it looks. We crossed 2,000 volunteers knocking after six weeks of canvassing this year and never looked back (even after our Mother’s Day dip) — until Saturday. And you can look at the graphic and see how big Saturday’s dip was. But it was the 645 volunteers who had signed up to canvass and didn’t show that really sent the message. They were scared, they didn’t want to face voters after Thursday night. No one is blaming them. Hope Springs from Field is dedicated to trying to provide volunteers with an exceptional experience canvassing. As Early Organizers, we have to because we have every intention of getting those volunteers to participate to a greater degree during GOTV (get-out-the-vote), when canvassing means the most to the campaign(s). So we listen, we train, we accept volunteer feedback. But 645 missing volunteers represents missing between 40,000 to 45,000 doors. Had they shown up, we’d have a normal holiday week experience. And we can’t excuse this dip on anything other than the debate because volunteers told us why they weren’t going to show up on Saturday. Hope Springs from Field PAC began knocking on doors again on March 2nd to set up a favorable “battle space” or foundation for Democrats in 2024. We target Democrats and unaffiliated voters with a systematic approach that reminds them not only that Democrats care, but Democrats are determined to deliver the best government possible to all Americans. The voters we talk to in these 12 Swing States tell us they come away more invested in governance and feel more favorably towards Democrats in general because of our approach. Obviously, we rely on grassroots support, so if you support field/grassroots organizing, voter registration (and follow-up), GOTV and our efforts to protect our voters, we would certainly appreciate your support: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopemobilization2024 Hope Springs from Field understands that volunteer to voter personal interactions are critical. Knocking on doors has repeatedly been found to be the most successful tactic to get voters to cast a ballot and that is the goal of what we do. We attempted to measure the visceral feelings of voters expressing that Biden was “too old” or frail by counting them. Volunteers already walk with Observations Sheets (and Q-Slips) so they are supposed to be recording data that can be helpful in GOTV. “Signs of children present,” that kind of thing. “Front door has a pile of (packages), (mail) or doorhangers,” is another frequent observation. Sometimes (although not often) volunteers even make note of where the door is that residents use daily. So we already had a system in place for collecting voter data on this kind of thing. But we didn’t know what to expect. We weren’t (and aren’t) soliciting data on how voters feel about Joe Biden and his age. We are passively recording comments that voters make in this regard. We expected some, and we wanted to know how important it was. This is no different than what we did in 2022. We noticed then that there were voters who would tell us that The Economy was the most urgent issue that the country faced but then tell us they were making their voting decisions based on candidate stances on abortion. So we added the single issue question to our survey and started to collect that data. But this was different. We couldn’t very well add a space about whether Joe Biden was too (fill in the blank) because our practice has been to offer the Issues Survey over to the voter to see what data we collect before they answered. Adding something like that would encourage a voter response and we wanted to know — because we had heard it before — what voters were thinking off the top of their heads. As part of our training before canvassing, we tell volunteers to move voters along when they pause to think about something. We are looking for visceral responses, things that immediately come to mind. And the verbage we suggest to say to a voter if they pause too long is, this isn’t a test. We are looking for an immediate response. ISR# = Number of Voters who filled out parts of the Issues Survey But the Issues Survey has a question about voter impression of how Biden is doing his job and that’s where we’ve been getting the feedback. So we recorded those responses passively using the Observations form last Saturday. As you can see 728 (or .09%) voters gave us unsolicited feedback that either Joe Biden was Too Old or Frail (or other terms suggesting too old or frail). Georgia is basically the median here. But it’s the composition of the states above Georgia that are most disconcerting. And i don’t have to say a word here, i bet everyone reading this understands what it means. It is really important to remember that Hope Springs volunteers don’t knock on the doors of Republican households. These are approximately half Democratic houses and half unaffiliated houses. 372 of our “Too Old” respondents are either registered Democrats or modelled within VAN as Democrats. 356 of our “Too Old” respondents are unaffiliated. We have, from the beginning, asked the voters we talked to about whether or not they thought Joe Biden was doing a good job. After the Trump Conviction, Biden’s approval numbers jumped, and that was largely due to Democrats “coming home.” After the Debate, his numbers fell. Basically reversed the trend line. This is the graphic that some “Democratic stalwarts“ had asked for. But we can’t be surprised. A lot of the work that had been done to put Biden in a strong position to win in November just got thrown out the door. There’s a lot of work ahead in the next 126 days. If you are able to support our efforts to mobilize and protect Democratic voters, especially in minority communities, expand the electorate, and believe in grassroots efforts to increase voter participation and election protection, please help. It’s time: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopemobilization2024 You can follow that link for our mailing address, as well (for those who would rather send us a check). Thank you for your support! This work depends on you! [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/7/1/2249900/-What-Voters-told-us-at-the-doors-on-Saturday-about-Joe-Biden-being-Too-Old-to-Run?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/